Hi everyone,

I would like to tell you about an exciting new feature on Metacafe that will help make your blog or website even better. We have a new video player that can be customized to fit your site and the interests of your audience so that each day your visitors can watch fresh, high quality and engaging videos without ever leaving your site. Consider this an enhanced version of our regular embedded player.

You can choose from several categories and whichever keywords you would like, and you can have as many of these players on your page as you’d like.

So how can this video player help you and your site?

* Keep your visitors engaged – By placing Metacafe’s unique player on your site, you keep your visitors on your site longer, providing your users both with the information they want and the entertainment they crave, and giving them a great reason to come back.
* Bandwidth is on us. Storage is on us. Finding the videos is on us.
* Videos that fit your site – You can customize your player to suit your specific needs – if you run a pet site, you can have animal videos featured on your site. Just place our player by using the code on the bottom of this page, and we’ll do the rest.

So basically, you get all the fun of Metacafe on your site: No bandwidth fee, No storage fee, No hassle. Get your new video player here and start giving your readers an extra reason to come back to your website.

 

By: Kip Kay

For the past 25 years I have been involved in video production in one form or another. I can remember buying our first video camera, a big heavy camera with a separate, full-size, VHS recorder that was slung around your shoulder.

What was once a hobby became a full-time profession. Things sure have changed! Since I have made my living with video for so many years, and now with the internet I knew there had to be another outlet for my passion and creativity.

I discovered Metacafe! I watched the videos, looked at what people liked and started coming up with ideas. Mystic Cube is the end result of my very first entry in Metacafe and the Producer Rewards program. People started watching it and commenting on it trying to come up with the solution. As of this writing it has surpassed 150,000 views.

(more…)

By: Ron Smoorenburg

The first time I saw Metacafe was when I searched for a stunt video clip. I am an actor/stuntman and I left Holland to live in Thailand to work with Tony Jaa. Metacafe has many action video clips with very spectacular content. Besides the stunt clips I also watched clips from 9-11 and some very funny clips as well. It’s like watching TV and you controlling your own content.

Anyway… 2 weeks later I was eating noodle soup in front of my house with my friend, and I saw something moving on the left of me but there was nobody there. It was something white. I couldn’t believe it – it was a large bone going up a tree.

(more…)

By: Owen Kennedy

The reason I put the “crazy cream” video together is because I’ve always been a big fan of Metacafe and their fun, family appropriate, user friendly videos and decided I wanted to be part of the group. The video I put together was of an experiment I learned a while back and thought it was something others would enjoy watching as much as I did.

Videos I will be making in the future will be more captivating. I know everyone who watches them will enjoy them. I don’t want to go into details of their content but what I will tell you is I will have several out in the near future so keep a sharp eye on steeped’s profile. You don’t want to miss them.

(more…)

Hi everyone,

I would like to talk to you a bit about the importance of thumbnails, titles, and descriptions. Most have you already noticed that these three things are just as important as your videos’ content. A good title, description and thumbnail can attract more viewers which can help kick start its viral lifecycle.

On the other hand, we have noticed that some producers are taking this idea too far. Adding a sexy still to the start and then using that as a ‘representative’ thumbnail for an all together different kind of video is admirably clever, but unfortunately also a little dishonest. (more…)

(more…)

By:Andrew DeMartini

I am an aviation photographer, so whenever I have the opportunity to go to an air show, in this case the Atlantic City Air Show, break out my camera and just film everything I can. Every show i go to i film everything.. and every act to capture the show’s atmosphere.

I plan out the shots I want that would go good with the video, and whatever song is in my head during that show is what I use when I’m editing, so the video always means something to me. The F-22 pilot in the video is my friend Mike Shower, and I have a few more friends who are pilots as well, but they are not present in this particular video. (more…)

By: Eran Solomon 

I am Eran Solomon, 23 years old from Haifa, Israel, currently a 2nd year student at a graphic design college. I work as a freelancer making post-production and gfx (imaging) in general. The first time I laid my hands on GFX was back in 1999 when my brother brought home a little (big) program called Photoshop. It had me right there. I started messing around with family pictures, all for fun, of course. Slowly I began getting great reactions from people, which made me do more!

When I was 12 years old my grandfather Leon gave me a video camera. It was so old it used big VHS cassettes!  My friends and I were really excited and started doing little stop-motion animations with toys and play dough. We loved it so much that we did it over my study time at school (not good! ï?Š). I remember bringing stuff we made back then to school and get great reactions from my classmates. (more…)

Ask an amateur producer what the secret to video success is and he’ll probably say, “Getting good audio and video.� The truth is, while production values are important, they won’t make or break your video unless they are so low in quality that they distract from the plot and dialogue. What really matters is everything that comes prior to production – the idea, the script, the production plan, and the 1000 other little details you have to keep track of.

Granted, preproduction for a one to eight minute video is going to be a lot simpler than for a big-budget Hollywood film. But it’s more difficult than you might imagine. That’s where Celtx’s Media Preproduction software comes in.

The free, downloadable application takes care of all of your preproduction needs, from keeping track of your initial ideas and scripting, to storyboarding, budgeting, scheduling, and even collaborating with others online. You’d normally have to pay $100 or more for “professional� software with these sorts of features, but Celtx is giving it away for free.

Getting Started

Since there are so many options with this software, getting started can be a little daunting. I recommend looking at the “Wonderful World of Oz� project that comes preloaded on Celtx and perusing the documents it contains. You’ll notice that the interface is very intuitive, with a “Project Navigator� sidebar on the left that organizes the various facets of preproduction. Double-clicking any document on this sidebar will open up a tab along the top of the program (much like Firefox or Internet Explorer).

Assuming you’re not ready to bang out a script on day one, what you’ll want to do is add a blank text page to your sidebar to jot down random ideas. If you’ve come up with some characters, you can also add character profiles with details including a name, a basic description, physical traits, character traits, a motivation and a character background. You can open similar files for scenes or create a story outline.

Scripting

Once you’ve progressed to the scripting stage, Celtx goes beyond organization to help you with formatting. Correct formatting may not be essential for web video production, but it will help you focus your thoughts and make it easier for your cast and crew to understand your vision.

The Celtx script editor allows you to quickly and easily toggle through the seven features of a script (scene heading, action, character, etc.) by using the Tab and Enter buttons on your keyboard. The editor also features all of the basic tools you will need, including a nifty “uppercase� function that makes whatever text you select uppercase and a “find and replace� feature that can quickly change character or setting names.

Additional Features

Celtx is a fantastic program because it comes loaded with a ton of features. While you probably won’t use them all, it’s still nice to know they are there to fall back on. One of the most useful features is the storyboard, which allows you to insert images and captions to represent the important shots you plan to incorporate in your video.

For the professionals out there, Celtx has templates for locations, props, sound clips, wardrobe and actors that let you keep track of everything a producer needs to know. There is also a schedule maker to help you plan shoot dates, location scouting, and other important events.

The most innovative feature of Celtx is Web Services, which allows you to upload your project to the Celtx server and is a great tool for people working in teams. When you upload your project, you can limit its visibility to your fellow producers alone or get constructive criticism from the entire Celtx community by opening it to the public. Even if you aren’t collaborating with someone else, you can use Web Services to store a backup copy of your work.

Summary

Celtx is a must have program for anyone serious about video production and is worth a look even for those of you who are just testing the waters. It’s available free for download and works on Windows, OSX and Linux based systems. While Celtx won’t make you a more creative writer or producer, it will help focus your thoughts and ultimately help you create better content in less time.

Think for a minute how much information there is in the world. There are billions upon billions of books, videos, audio files, images, and web pages. Every day, people absorb more information and, in turn, use it to create new data for the world to see. Now think what would happen if all this information were available digitally on a website.

While we’re not there yet, one organization is striving to at least take us in that general direction by archiving historical collections that exist in a digital format. The Internet Archive, founded in 1996, works in conjunction with a number of partners including The US Library of Congress and the Smithsonian to provide free texts, audio, moving images, and software to anyone with an internet connection.

Even more interestingly, the site is working to archive old web pages through its “Wayback Machine,� having already archived 85 billion web pages from 1996 to present day. This may seem like a pointless exercise, but as the Internet Archive says, these web pages are artifacts that one day may shed light on our culture at the beginning of the Information Age. Besides, it’s fun to see how sites like Google and Facebook got their starts. You can even check out how your favorite video site, Metacafe, looked back in the day.

Stock Media Center:

So why should you care about this site? For one, it’s an amazing resource for anyone, not just librarians and cultural anthropologists. There are hundreds of thousands of videos, audio files, texts, images, and software files that you can download and enjoy for free.

As a Metacafe video producer, this wealth of digital data is particularly useful as a source of stock video, audio, or images for your films. The thing to note is that we have restrictions on what sort of content can be used in Producer Rewards videos.

Generally, you can use content that is in the public domain without fear of rejection – just try to make sure it really is in the public domain. You can also use content released under a Creative Commons Attribution license as long as you contact the author and make sure it’s ok that you don’t credit him in your video.

For non-Producer Rewards videos, our rules are a bit more relaxed. You still can’t post copyrighted content without permission, but you can use media released under a Creative Commons license as long as you comply with the restrictions.

Design Issues:

Content aside, the Internet Archive leaves a little to be desired in terms of its interface and design. Maybe it’s because the site was conceived of as a massive library, but no matter how you look at it the pages are about as bland as a card catalog.

I would not come to the site to be entertained, despite the fact that there is a lot of entertaining material there. The pages are just not organized to allow you to find interesting stuff.

The search functions are also questionable. The site allows you to search by media type, which is divided into a few dozen categories, but knowing what to search for is tricky. Generally, making your searches as broad as possible and then browsing the results is your best bet. If you have no clue what to search for, go into a category and browse by subject/keyword.

The other bothersome thing about searching the Internet Archive is that there is no readily available way to search by license type. I’m not sure if this is deliberate or not, but it would be a very useful addition to their search bar. That being said, if you take the time to look through the Archive’s massive FAQ section, they do explain how to perform such a search.

If you want to search the Internet Archive by public domain, for instance, clicking here will add a public domain thread to your search. Then choose the media type to look for and add a term to the box to narrow your search. To search Audio for “blues�, you would add the words “AND� and “blues� to the end of the public domain thread in the search box, select Audio in the media type drop-down menu, and hit the search button. It’s not exactly rocket science, but it could be made easier.

The rest of the site is fairly self-explanatory. There’s an extensive FAQ section, active forums, and an upload feature to distribute your own content. Just don’t expect too many people to find your file once it’s up.

Summary:

Overall, the Internet Archive is a great resource, but not a great site. Hopefully in time that will change, because the site’s message of “universal access to human knowledge� is crucial in the digital millennium.